Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you well, [Exeunt severally. good father. SCENE II. The Street before the Prison. Enter DUKE as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell inen and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.4 Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here? Clo. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser al A grange implies some one particular house immediately inferior in rank to a ball, situated at a small distance from the town or village from which it takes its name; as Hornby grange, Blackwell grange; and is in the neighbourhood simply called The Grange. Originally, perhaps, these buildings were the lord's granary or storehouse, and the residence of his chief bailiff. (Grange, from Granagium, Lat.) Ritson. A grange, in its original signification, meant a farm-house of a monastery (from grana gerendo), from which it was always at some little distance. One of the monks was usually appointed to inspect the accounts of the farm. He was called the Prior of the Grange;-in barbarous Latin, Gragniarius. Being placed at a distance from the monastery, and not connected with any other buildings, Shakspeare, with his wonted license, uses it, both here and in Othello, in the sense of a solitary farmhouse. I have since observed that the word was used in the same sense by the contemporary writers. So, in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatory, printed about the year 1590: " till my return I would have thee stay at our little graunge house in the country." - In Lincolnshire they at this day call every lone house that is unconnected with others, a grange. Malone. 4 bastard.] A kind of sweet wine, then much in vogue, from the Italian bastardo. Warburton. See a note on King Henry IV, Part I, Act II, sc. iv. Steevens. Bastard was raisin-wine. See Minshieu's Dict. in v. and Cole's Latin Dict. 1679. Malone. 5 since, of two usuries,] Here a satire on usury turns abruptly to a satire on the person of the usurer, without any low'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. Elb. Come your way, sir:-Bless you, good father friar. Duke. And you, good brother father: What offence hath this man made you, sir? Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found kind of preparation. We may be assured then, that a line or two, at least, have been lost. The subject of which we may easily discover was a comparison between the two usurers; as, before, between the two usuries. So that, for the future, the passage should be read with asterisks, thus-by order of law, a furr'd gown, &c. Warburton. *** Sir Thomas Hanmer corrected this with less pomp, then since of two usurers the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed, by order of law, a furr'd gown, &c. His punctuation is right, but the alteration, small as it is, appears more than was wanted. Usury may be used by an easy license for the professors of usury. Johnson. 6 — and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too, &c.] In this passage the foxes' skins are supposed to denote craft, and the lamb-skins innocence. It is evident therefore that we ought to read, "furred with fox on lamb-skins," instead of "and lambskins;" for otherwise, craft will not stand for the facing. M. Mason. Fox-skins and lamb-skins were both used as facings to cloth in Shakspeare's time. See the Statute of Apparel, 24 Henry VIII, c. 13. Hence fox furr'd slave is used as an opprobrious epithet in Wily Beguiled, 1606, and in other old comedies. See also Charracterismi, or Lenton's Leasures, &c. 1631: "An Usurer is an old fox, clad in lamb-skin, who hath pray'd [prey'd] so long abroad," &c. Malone. 7 and you, good brother father:] In return to Elbow's blundering address of good father friar, i. e., ·good father brother, the Duke humorously calls him, in his own style, good brother father. This would appear still clearer in French. Dieu vous benisse, mon pere frere.-Et vous aussi, mon frere pere. There is no doubt that our friar is a corruption of the French frere. Tyrwhitt. Mr. Tyrwhitt's observation is confirmed by a passage in The Strangest Adventure that ever happened, &c. 4to. 1601: "And I call to mind, that as the reverend father brother, Thomas Sequera, Superiour of Ebora, and mine auncient friend, came to visite me," &c. Steezens. 8 upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy. Duke. Fy, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd! That is thy means to live: Do thou but think So stinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend. Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I would prove Duke. Nay if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer; Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning: the deputy cannot abide a whore-master: if he be a whore-monger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free!1 8 a strange pick-lock,] As we hear no more of this charge, it is necessary to prevent honest Pompey from being taken for a house-breaker. The locks which he had occasion to pick, were by no means common, in this country at least. They were probably introduced, with other Spanish customs, during the reign of Philip and Mary; and were so well known in Edinburgh, that in one of Sir David Lindsay's plays represented to thousands in the open air, such a lock is actually opened on the stage. Ritson. 9 I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.] The old editions have, I drink, I eat away myself, and live. This is one very excellent instance of the sagacity of our editors, and it were to be wished heartily, that they would have obliged us with their physical solution, how a man can eat away himself, and live. Mr. Bishop gave me that most certain emendation, which I have substituted in the room of the former foolish reading; by the help whereof, we have this easy sense : that the Clown fed himself, and put clothes on his back, by exercising the vile trade of a bawd. Theobald. Enter LUCIO. Elb. His neck will come to your waist, a cord, sir." 1 That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free] i. e. as faults are destitute of all comeliness or seeming. The first of these lines refers to the deputy's sanctified hypocrisy; the second to the Clown's beastly occupation. But the latter part is thus ill expressed for the sake of the rhyme. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: Free from all faults, as from faults seeming free. In the interpretation of Dr. Warburton, the sense is trifling, and the expression harsh. To wish that men were as free from faults, as faults are free from comeliness, [instead of void of comeliness] is a very poor conceit. I once thought it should be read: O that all were, as all would seem to be, Free from all faults, or from false seeming free. So in this play: "O place, O, power-how dost thou "Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls But now I believe that a less alteration will serve the turn : that men were really good, or that their faults were known, that men were free from faults, or faults from hypocrisy. So Isabella calls Angelo's hypocrisy, seeming, seeming. Johnson. I think we should read with Sir T. Hanmer : Free from all faults, as from faults seeming free. i. e. I wish we were all as good as we appear to be; a sentiment very naturally prompted by his reflection on the behaviour of Angelo. Sir T. Hanmer has only transposed a word to produce a convenient sense. Steevens. Hanmer is right with respect to the meaning of this passage, but I think his transposition unnecessary. The words, as they stand, will express the same sense, if pointed thus: Free from all faults, as, faults from, seeming free. Nor is this construction more harsh than that of many other sentences in the play, which of all those which Shakspeare has left us, is the most defective in that respect. M. Mason. The original copy has not Free at the beginning of the line. It was added unnecessarily by the editor of the second folio, who did not perceive that our, like many words of the same kind, was used by Shakspeare as a dissyllable. The reading,— from all faults, which all the modern editors have adopted, (I think, improperly) was first introduced in the fourth folio. Dr. Johnson's conjectural reading, or, appears to me very probable. The compositor might have caught the word as from the preceding line. If as be right, Dr. Warburton's interpretation is perhaps the true one. Would we were all as free from faults as Clo. I spy comfort; I cry, bail: Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine. Lucio. How now, noble Pompey? What, at the heels of Cæsar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman,3 to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket faults are free from, or destitute of comeliness, or seeming. This line is rendered harsh and obscure by the word free being dragged from its proper place for the sake of the rhyme. Malone. Till I meet with some decisive instance of the pronoun-our, used as a dissyllable, I read with the second folio, which I cannot suspect of capricious alterations. Steevens. 2 His neck will come to your waist, a cord, sir.] That is, his neck will be tied, like your waist, with a rope. The friars of the Franciscan order, perhaps of all others, wear a hempen cord for a girdle. Thus Buchanan : "Fac gemant suis "Variata terga funibus." Johnson. 3 Pigmalion's images, newly made woman,] By Pigmalion's images, newly made woman, I believe Shakspeare meant no more than--Have you no women now to recommend to your customers, as fresh and untouched as Pgmalion's statue was, at the moment when it became flesh and blood? The passage, may, however, contain some allusion to a pamphlet printed in 1598, called The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image, and certain Satires. I have never seen it, but it is mentioned by Ames, p. 568: and whatever its subject might be, we learn from an order signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, that this book was commanded to be burnt. The order is inserted at the end of the second volume of the entries belonging to the Stationers' Company. Steevens. If Marston's Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image be alluded to, I believe it must be in the argument." The maide (by the power of Venus) was metamorphosed into a living woman. Farmer. There may, however, be an allusion to a passage in Lylly's Woman in the Moone, 1597. The inhabitants of Utopia petition Nature for females, that they may, like other beings, propagate their species. Nature grants their request, and “they draw the curtins from before Nature's shop, where stands an image, clad, and some unclad, and they bring forth the clothed image," &c. Steevens. Perhaps the meaning is,-Is there no courtezan, who being newly made woman, i. e. lately debauched, still retains the appearance of chastity, and looks as cold as a statue, to be had, &c. The following passage in Blurt Master Constable, a comedy, by Middleton, 1602, seems to authorize this interpretation : |